'He can see you in half an hour,' Tilney said, cupping the mouthpiece. That suit you?'

'Yes.'

'Where will you be?'

'They can page me.'

'Put your head down somewhere,' he said. There are a few rooms here, cubicles really, where we can get some sleep if we need to.

'I'll try.'

But when I left him I went along to the Signals room to put in time, not eager for the nightmares that sleep would bring.

There were only a few people at the floodlit mission boards – Stacey, Freeman, Holmes, and a couple of new recruits up from training at Norfolk. Only two of the boards were active, with their code names chalked at the top: Stingray and Scimitar. Croder, Chief of Signals, wasn't in here, so there couldn't be much going on.

I told them I wanted to talk to the ambassador, but it didn't do any good.

'They wouldn't let you into the embassy?' This was Freeman, manning the board for Scimitar. He didn't look worried.

They said I could come back tomorrow. Listen, I think… then there was some static and all we could hear was his voice behind it, nothing intelligible.

Holmes had looked up when I'd come in, and now he was wandering across, a cup of coffee in his hand.

… But I'd say what's happened is that he's caught some of the fallout from the palace coup and he's lying low, can't see me or anyone else. This whole scene's a mess – they've sacked God knows how many diplomats but they can't even get a plane out.